Beckham fails to pull crowd in New Zealand

Wellington, Dec 5 (DPA) A year after David Beckham drew the biggest crowd ever to watch a football match in New Zealand, his star power attraction appears to be fading, according to news reports Friday.Organisers of an exhibition match between Beckham’s LA Galaxy side and Oceania All Stars XI Saturday in Auckland were advertising two tickets for the price of one to try to fill the 32,000-seat Mount Smart Stadium.

Only 14,000 tickets had been sold by Thursday night, the New Zealand Herald reported.

A year ago, Beckham and the Galaxy attracted nearly 32,000 spectators to a match in Wellington, a record crowd for football in rugby-mad New Zealand.

Saturday’s match has been organized by the Auckland Regional Council, whose spokesman, Lance Vervoort, said that up to 20,000 ticket sales were needed to cover the cost of bringing the team to New Zealand.